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maki vs. sushi

maki vs. sushi: What's the difference?

Sushi refers to food made with cold boiled rice moistened with rice vinegar and shaped into bite-sized portions. Maki is a type of sushi that is made by rolling the rice around strips of vegetables or raw fish and then slicing the resulting tube into bite-sized pieces. It comes from the Japanese word maku "to roll up."

maki

[ mah-kee ]
noun
  1. cold boiled rice moistened with rice vinegar, formed around strips of vegetable or raw fish into a cylindrical seaweed-wrapped roll that is sliced into bite-size pieces.

sushi

[ soo-shee ]
noun
  1. cold boiled rice moistened with rice vinegar, usually shaped into bite-size pieces and topped with raw seafood (nigiri), formed around strips of vegetable or raw fish into a cylindrical seaweed-wrapped roll that is sliced into bite-size pieces (maki), or wrapped together with strips of vegetable or raw fish in a sheet of dried seaweed and rolled into a cone shape (temaki).